from Parthian

A new collection from an award-winning fiction writer, these stories have depth, maturity and resonance.

Presented with flair by a true story-teller, they look out to a wider world with themes that are universal.
 

“Blood, etc contains fifteen stories from the last five years. One won a literary prize, others were commissions from magazines and BBC radio. The rest, the majority, were written because they arrived and I enjoy short story writing more than any other form.

The neglected corner of North East Wales that faces towards Merseyside is where I come from and what I really know about. In Free Again, teenager Teg has the worst night out ever in Liverpool. Just as in The Garden of Early Delights (set in Oxfordshire) or Dinner on the Roof (Canada) I tend to deal with what happens when people from my bit of country step over the edge. Not that staying put is a winning formula. In Weed rural families drive a priest into drug-dependency: then God himself materializes.

Whether, as in the title story, it's spilt on the road or just stays coursing through the veins, blood is what they are all concerned with.”

An extract from Blood,etc

“It was the worst thing he had heard in his life: a deep, throaty bellow that rose and slackened, rocketed up to an almost unbearable pitch before subsiding into a thick gurgle. Another bellow - more gurgling - a blessed pause - and a horrible human-like scream.

The steps down onto the road were almost blocked by the car's bonnet but he fought the hawthorn to get out. Hidden by the car but now directly ahead of him he came across Mel. She was lying on her side, one arm beneath her head, which was turned toward him. Her eyes were wide open and apparently staring into his. Her hat was still in place though pushed back so that strands of bright red hair were on show and there was a long black mark across her cheek. As he knelt down to touch her face and speak a word to her, the off-side door of the Mercedes (with its dented panel) began to swing open. It would, he saw, catch the unmoving Mel in its arc. Angrily he placed both fists on the door and slammed it shut. A face behind the glass - with an open mouth - registered with him as nobody, neither man nor woman.

“Stay in!” he shouted at it. Dimly he was aware that in the vehicle's interior someone had begun to cry.”

Buy 'Blood etc' online at GWales.com